Head of Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Mohamed Abdel-Karim, has stated that there are 152 promising investment opportunities in the industrial sector that could bridge the country's trade deficit estimated at $20bn. During a meeting held in the Alexandria Business Association to discuss the Authority's plans to achieve sustainable industrial development and to present facilities and achievements made to serve the industrial community. Abdel-Karim presented the steps taken by the IDA during the last period, explaining that the authority conducted studies to monitor the most important internal and external obstacles and challenges that it has long faced for decades. Besides, monitoring observations of customers dealing with the Authority and business community on its performance to know the causes of these problems and develop solutions. He explained that in terms of providing industrial lands and mechanisms for allocating them, the IDA has reactivated the online industrial investment map by offering 1,051 investment opportunities to provide service impartially and according to fixed standards with full transparency. He noted that a committee was formed for land allocation including all jurisdictions over industrial lands, to facilitate mechanism of land allocation and to study investor requests for each case separately. Since September 2021, the committee has allocated 623 plots of land on a total area of 2.7m sqm for 334 industrial projects. He pointed out that the committee provided different incentives to complete the proof of the seriousness of lands allocated through the investment map. One of the most important financial facilitations was reducing costs of studying the application, canceling fee for submitting offers and reducing reservation fees from EGP 100,000 to 10% of the total price of the land, and exemption from Submit a bank guarantee letter to prove seriousness. He elaborated that the government's efforts reflected in high performance rates of the authority and its industrial services. In a comparative study between the rate of issuance of licenses during the period from July 2021 to May 2022 and compared to the period from July 2022 to May 2023, it witnessed a 26% increase in the issuance of operating licenses, while the rate of issuance of industrial registry increased by 38% during the same period, and the percentage of industrial land allocation increased by 183%. He confirmed that a 47% decrease in the number of complaints received by the authority was observed after the package of procedural reforms, facilitation and incentives that was recently approved.
